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Optimization of combined Reverse Osmosis: thermal Zero Liquid Discharge system parameters for an Ammonia and Urea production complex

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Abstract

Zero liquid discharge (ZLD) has shown to be a promising technology to recycle water with good quality. The ZLD objective is to purify the water from all the liquid waste. The ZLD approach is concentrated on reducing wastewater for possible reuse. In conventional ZLD systems, thermal processes are fundamental. The biggest challenge to implement thermal ZLD systems widely is its intensive energy consumption. As a solution, thermal ZLD systems are integrated with membrane-based reverse osmosis (RO) technology to reduce both capital and operational costs. This study, therefore, focuses on the optimizing a RO/thermal ZLD system based on one of the most important parameters of design—the salinity of the reject brine of evaporator. To give more practical aspect to the results, solution is based realistic design data of a petrochemical complex as the producer of ammonia (2050 ton day−1) and urea (3250 ton day−1). Results show that increasing the salinity of brine stream in evaporator reduces the total required heating surface area of the ZLD plant as well as its required power. This decrease is evident at lower amounts of Xb, but the rate is lowered with increasing of this parameter. So, further increase in Xb does not have much effect on reducing the total heating surface area and power consumption. It means that there is an optimum amount of Xb which can be selected for different applications.

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Abbreviations

\(B\) :

Brine mass flow (t h−1)

\(C_{\text{fw}}\) :

Feed concentration (kg kg−1)

\(M_{\text{TP}}\) :

Product slurry concentration (kg m−3)

\(\rho_{\text{SL}}\) :

Density of slurry (kg m−3)

\(C_{\text{Pf}}\) :

Specific heat of feed (kJ kg−1 k−1)

\(\bar{T}\) :

Evaporator entry temperature (°C)

\(T_{\text{f}}\) :

Feed temperature (°C)

\(V\) :

Recovered water mass flow (t h−1)

\(\lambda\) :

Latent heat for vaporization (kJ kg−1)

\(C_{\text{PSL}}\) :

Specific heat of slurry (kJ kg−1 k−1)

\(\rho_{\text{v}}\) :

Vapor density (kg m−3)

\(u_{\text{v}}\) :

Vapor velocity (m s−1)

\(D_{\text{v}}\) :

Diameter of cylinder (m)

\(\mu_{\text{SL}}\) :

Dynamic viscosity of Slurry (Ns m−2)

\(h\) :

Required hydrostatic head (m)

\(\Delta T_{\text{LMTD}}\) :

Logarithmic mean temperature difference

\(M_{\text{d}}\) :

Mass flow rate of distillate (kg s−1)

\(M_{\text{f}}\) :

Mass flow rate of feed (kg s−1)

\(T_{\text{b}}\) :

Brine boiling temperature (°C)

\(T_{\text{d}}\) :

Condensed vapor temperature (°C)

\(T_{\text{s}}\) :

Range of compressed vapor temperature (°C)

\(\lambda_{\text{b}}\) :

Latent heat for brine (kJ kg−1)

\(\lambda_{\text{d}}\) :

Latent heat for distillate (kJ kg−1)

\(C_{\text{p}}\) :

Heat capacity (kJ kg−1 k−1)

\(C_{\text{pv}}\) :

Heat capacity of the vapor (kJ kg−1 k−1)

\(U_{\text{b}}\) :

Overall heat transfer coefficient of brine HE (kW m−2 k)

\(U_{\text{d}}\) :

Overall heat transfer coefficient of distillate HE (kW m−2 k)

\(\gamma\) :

Compressibility factor

\(X_{\text{b}}\) :

Salinity of reject brine (ppm)

\(X_{\text{f}}\) :

Feed stream salinity (ppm)

\(\lambda_{\text{c}}\) :

Latent heat for compressor (kJ kg−1)

\(M_{\text{c}}\) :

Mass flow rate in compressor (kg s−1)

\(U_{\text{c}}\) :

Overall heat transfer coefficient in compressor (kW m−2 k)

\(U_{\text{e}}\) :

Overall heat transfer coefficient in evaporator (kW m−2 k)

\(\eta\) :

Efficiency of the vapor compressor

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran

    Sharare Mohammadi & Mohammad Hossein Ahmadi

  2. Amard-e Farda Energy Systems, Amol, Iran

    Ramin Ehsani

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  1. Sharare Mohammadi
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Correspondence to Mohammad Hossein Ahmadi.

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Mohammadi, S., Ahmadi, M.H. & Ehsani, R. Optimization of combined Reverse Osmosis: thermal Zero Liquid Discharge system parameters for an Ammonia and Urea production complex. J Therm Anal Calorim 144, 1863–1871 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-020-10523-2

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